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You probably know that this weekend marks the end of Daylight Saving Time (DST) in the US. While I despise the idea of losing an hour in the spring, I do appreciate the concept of sleeping in another hour in the fall. Actually, I think the whole concept of DST is bogus. In fact, the … Read more

Here is a funny comic that I came across recently (thanks Kelly AB9RF): “Spinal Tap” is a reference back to the classic Rob Reiner film This is Spinal Tap, where Nigel explains the value of an amplifier gain control that goes all the way to eleven. For more fine, sophisticated Spinal Tap culture, see the … Read more

You’ve probably heard that RadioShack is rebranding itself to be The Shack. This has triggered another round of criticism of RadioShack stores, with the usual tired references to “Rat Shack”, “Radio Schlock”, or worse. Apparently, RadioShack has failed to live up to the expectations of the technorati. Well, it is true: RadioShack is the worst … Read more

The February 2009 shutdown of analog TV is approaching fast so I am actually starting to prepare for it. I previously wrote about this topic in Here Comes Digital TV. The FCC has asked the ARRL (really the amateur radio community) for help in getting the word out. This request emphasizes information sharing, not hands-on … Read more

Having recently commented (whined?) about the huge about of email spam clogging the internet, I now turn to the same issue with POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service). At our house, we use caller ID and answering machine call screening to deal with most solicitors. This has been remarkably effective. With the election growing near, the … Read more

I have this blog configured so that all comments are moderated. It seems that without this, spammers and scammers like to post all kinds of useless stuff. So when you post a comment, it may take a day or two for me to notice it and process it. (It depends on my schedule, of course.) … Read more